Trump skips FBI background checks for controversial cabinet picks – report
Trump skips FBI background checks for controversial cabinet picks – report
Bypassing the standard procedure comes as president-elect’s choices of RFK Jr and Matt Gaetz send shock waves
Summary
Donald Trump’s transition team has bypassed standard FBI background checks for key cabinet nominees, relying instead on private investigators, as reported by CNN.
This breaks decades-old norms meant to vet candidates for criminal history and conflicts of interest.
Controversial appointees include Matt Gaetz (attorney general), Tulsi Gabbard (director of national intelligence), and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (health secretary), all facing scrutiny for past investigations, pro-Russian views, or personal admissions.
Critics argue Trump seeks to undermine traditional vetting, with potential security risks tied to bypassing these checks.
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How much corruption can we take before he's even installed? For real. This is way fucken nuttier than last time. It seems so malicious.
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We will take whatever he gives. The US voters approved him. They want this. They chose this, and everything that comes from it.
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This is why we’re supposed to have separation of powers. Any competent senate, even if the same party would insist in this before confirming. A senate full of sycophants on the other hand ….
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It seems so malicious.
I guess he was being honest about all that revenge talk, eh? I mean, it is actively and onerously malicious, but just like last time, everyone's just gonna let Trump steamroll them, because the federal government has long had hesitance to hold figures like presidents, senators, and supreme court justices to account, and this is just an extension of that.
I mean, we didn't prosecute Bush and Cheney for war crimes. Hillary Clinton was proud of her friendship with Henry Kissinger. Kamala Harris was proud of her endorsement by Dick Cheney.
"It's a big club and we ain't in it," but Trump and co. don't feel the need to put up the facade anymore.
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“It’s a big club and we ain’t in it,” but Trump and co. don’t feel the need to put up the facade anymore.
Bingo. Instead of "hiring" (paying off) politicians, they're just doing it themselves. They've lost any and all care about keeping up appearances. After all, what are we going to do? Sue them?
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the federal government has long had hesitance to hold figures like presidents, senators, and supreme court justices to account, and this is just an extension of that.
Because if they start holding others in similar offices to account, they might have to hold themselves as well, and that ain't happening.
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The 4 years of Trumpsanity isn't starting in January, it's starting right now. For fucks sake, I'm not ready yet. I need to start stockpiling popcorn and booze. Except this time I'll probably need less popcorn and more booze because I don't think it's going to be as stupid funny as last time. It's already not funny, it's been nosediving into "could it get any worse?" and so far the answer has been "Yes!".
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He called Putin for a reason
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This breaks decades-old norms meant to vet candidates for criminal history and conflicts of interest.
Come the fuck on. The FBI background checks are a "norm" too? Do we have actual laws for anything?
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The actual laws also don't seem to matter, in all fairness.
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Up till now, we didn’t really need them because everyone agreed it was the smart thing to do.
We’re done with smart.
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"Up till now, we didn’t really need them because everyone agreed it was the smart thing to do"
That doesn't sound very smart to begin with.
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That's the hope. If we're gonna have a fascist state, at least let it be a bumbling incompetent fascist state.
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America: relies on tradition because laws are for the poor
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And the party of tradition won't care
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The FBI were supposed to check Hunter Biden's laptop.
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A crook and convicted felon fills his cabinet with folk who probably can't pass an FBI security screening? Color me shocked.
The robber barons are back, baby
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Gabbard is the biggest threat here, in my view.
You couldn't dream of putting a spy in a better position than the DNI whose position is literally to oversee all intelligence agency silos.
Russia will know literally everything.
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Trump is just putting a person between him and Putin this time around, Russia knew everything the first admin also. He hid meeting notes and visitor logs and nobody did shit, then the assholes voted him back in to finish selling us off because somehow that means "America First".
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It’s amazing how Republicans manage to brand all their shit as the complete opposite of what it really is.
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She is literally in a cult.
People need to know that and they don't.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_of_Identity_Foundation
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"Nikolai Patrushev, part of the Russian president's inner circle and former Secretary of the Security Council, told the Russian newspaper Kommersant that Trump was duty-bound to act on his words.
Patrushev said: "To achieve success in the elections, Donald Trump relied on certain forces to which he has corresponding obligations. And as a responsible person, he will be obliged to fulfill them."
So yeah, sounds about right.
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So... About that "deep state" I kept hearing about for the past 30 years... Think maybe now it's probably the time, if there ever was one, to do something to preserve the world order.
Turns out the "deep state" are a bunch of rich people who don't want to pay taxes. Oops.
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The deep state was always meant to mean the FBI, FDA, EPA, and other agencies that while not always forces for good are forces of career bureaucrats that keep the United States a functioning nation.
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Didn't the deep state already green light an attempted assassination on Trump?
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This all highlights how many loopholes and deficiencies there are in a system that prides itself so much on checks and balances.
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Apparently the balance was supposed to be one person with good faith checking one without. Now we see what happens when every dumbass stands on the corrupt side of the balance.
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No system of rules or laws can fully account for people acting in bad faith.
I think the founding fathers counted on social shame to limit bad faith actors in government. A dishonorable person used to become a social pariah and might even get killed in a duel back in the 18th century. People wouldn't associate with them, sign a contract with them, or lend them money. But now?
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You obliquely touched on a pet theory of mine. We s a society have for decades now rallied against public shaming and bullying and that kind of thing, but I wonder if we've gone too far with it —antisocial behaviours are left to run unchecked, whereas 100 years ago these people would have been mercilessly mocked to their face every day. Without the fear of that public mockery and ridicule, we get this.
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Now they publish it on TikTok and collect likes and followers.
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No shit, one of his picks has white supremacist tats all over his body, one paid a minor for sex and gave them hardcore drugs, and the other is an actual Russian Agent.
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Citation for "Actual Russian Agent"?
(Hillary Clinton said so doesn't count. )
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Whether she has a direct chain of command from Russia or not, she is a Russian Asset by her actions.
She has been non-interventionist and spoke positively of Vladimir Putin and Bashar al-Assad for decades.
Gabbard promoted party division during the 2016 elections by supporting Bernie Sanders for president even after Sanders asked people to vote for Hillary Clinton. This aligns with Russian psyops on social media at the time.
When Russia Invaded Ukraine she parroted Kremlin Newspapers on the false claims that the USA operated 36 Biolabs in Ukraine.
She sued Hillary Clinton for calling her a Russian Asset for some good press but then dropped the suit shortly after announcing it to the news. Meaning she thought Hillary could have actually won such a case if it went to court.
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I've needed FBI background checks for nearly every job I've ever had. If I need a background check to work in an elementary school, why don't these people need it to handle our nation's secrets?
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don't worry, DOGE will abolish the FBI, you'll be able to work wherever you want!
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As long as it's a christian elementary school.
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What could go wrong?!
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Bypassed standard FBI background checks ... to vet candidates for criminal history and conflicts of interest.
Those are features, not bugs now. They know exactly who they picked.
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Exactly, they don't need the FBI to discover the things they already know about them. I would even say, those things are the reason why they were picked.
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Just like Trump limited what the FBI could look at for Kavanaugh, and nobody did anything about that either. He also over-ruled intelligence telling him Flynn was a foreign agent and cleared Kushner also. And the list goes on, but it didn't matter the first time around, and the assholes that voted him back in are cool with it.
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It's also better for Trump if only he knows those things.
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It's crazy that all these things I thought were laws my whole life turn out to just be "norms" that can be totally ignored
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always has been.
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to his supporters, this just looks like someone who gets things done. and they probably don't trust the FBI
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he'd just overrule anyway like he did jared and a couple dozen others before.
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So, Cheeto is relying on private investigators...run by the Russian FSB. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, the Deep State is going to filled with neo-Nazis, religious nutters and Russian agents.
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Always has been
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Moves to cut out the FBI appear to be in line with a pre-election memo drafted by his legal advisers and fits with Trump’s enduring suspicion that the agency is part of what, without evidence, he believes to be a “deep state” machine within the federal government bent on undermining him.
Trump administration does something obviously illegal and unethical
FBI: "Hey, that's illegal, you can't do that."
Trump: "Look at this deep state organization trying to prevent me from doing my job"
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Potential security risks?
Jfc these idiots.
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My only confidence and hope is that these guys are such monumental fuckups that they won’t be able to string together enough executive function to realize their dark vision.
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I am high on the same copium in order to avoid a complete breakdown.
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I assume if they’re investigating or vetting anything it’s: will they be loyal to Trump? Anything good to hang on to as blackmail or extortion material?
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Lemmy doesn't offer a way to filter posts by words in the title do they? I'm over hearing anything about this waste of oxygen and his buddies.
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I have a "muted words" option in Boost to filter out posts by title. Don't know about any other clients. Sry
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Voyager app does... it's how I don't see most musk threads.
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Let us know of you find out how. Heard others filtering but that might be on other platforms
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The Banana Republicans up to a good start.
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Tulsi Gabbard as the head of intelligence means the US intelligence community will have a blind spot in Russia, Ukraine and the Middle East. Plus many field agents are going to die. It’s going to be massive set back for Ukraine. And she’s probably going to relay everything to dictators like Putin and Assad. Mahalo Tulsi /s. And fuck your sPiRIt of alOHa
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Talking about US funded biolabs, that are already public knowledge, is hardly evidence of being a Russian spy.
Saying solutions in Syria need to involve Assad is common sense, not heretical.
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Things are going to be FAR worse than anyone has imagined thus far.
I just know it.
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Please don't tell my intrusive thoughts that
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Another “norm” that we thought was a requirement. The shittiest Civics class.
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Cadet Bone Spurs relied on (PAID!!!) a private doctor to give him bone spurs and completely avoided the military doctors who would have found his worthless fit for duty. How in the fuck can one avoid an FBI background check for any government position and contract work?
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It turns out that the erosion of rights will be done for fun during the real task of butchering the federal infrastructure and agenci6snd selling them to the highest bidding friend
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Well duh. That's what's a convicted felon would want to do if they got into power.
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Trump should just come clean and admit that he plans to betray Ukraine.
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He already said as much before the election and people still voted him in. He also stated he's cool with leveling Gaza, and called Netanyahu and told him no deal until after the election, that way he can give Israel carte blanche and claim the credit for "ending the war" (ignoring the complete genocide of the Palestinians).
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Given that last time they weren't even real proper investigations, they were directed by the White House and didn't actually look into things (in spite of Trump saying otherwise repeatedly), this is really only saving unnecessary spending.
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Well, the FBI agents are still getting paid and they are paying private investigators so I'm pretty sure these fake investigations are costing even more than the other fake investigations did.
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#TeamAsteroid ...
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Of course je did. How else is he going to appoint criminals and people with conflicts of interest ?
Well call this process "efficient" and say that Musk came up with it in his big brain
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Maybe because the whole fucking thing is a rat king of tangled conflicts of interest. If I were them I wouldn't want anyone with half a spine to so much as look at me.
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When you can’t drain the swamp, stuff the swamp with more swamp until unlimited swamp.
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This is how we know he takes our National Security VERY Seriously! Law and Order!
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do we really even need to do a background check on gaetz to know that he’s a bad idea? i’m pretty sure they’d find even more skeletons if they background checked him, but there should already be more than enough information to know he’s a bad candidate.
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Excellent, this surely won't have any far reaching consequences.
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"High on a list, you say??? Hire him! If he's a she, make sure she's locker-room-talk worthy"
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We still control the executive, make them vote on it.
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Crashing the country with no survivors.
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The Senate will allow this or not.
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The senate:
🔘 Will allow this
⚪️ Will not
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There are Republicans already encouraging the Senate to meet the 10-day recess necessary to allow Trump to circumvent the Senate with the Recess Appointments Clause. Which is Republicans using a rule in bad faith that was supposed to protect the process from the Senate using an excessive recess to prevent/delay a President from getting their picks vetted.
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